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More article related to Nightlife in Singapore
 
 Singapore: Signs of Intelligent NightlifeSingapore: Signs of Intelligent Nightlife By Andrew Ranard International Herald Tribune
. The list is long and Jim Gelpi, the American owner of the bar, provides his: Venice, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, New Orleans and Shanghai. This inspires him to add, "You can call me Harry but my momma calls me Jim." It's Saturday and Harry's has been open since 11 A.M. It has the kind of light for drinking in the day that Hemingway made immortal in his short stories. Arches, French windows, bamboo blinds, the de rigueur rattan furniture. Tiger beers, which cost from 5 to 8 Singapore dollars (about $3 to $5) depending on the time of day, are served outside on the terrace by the Singapore River. Inside brass fans spin tirelessly, and on the walls are Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec reproductions and photos of jazz musicians. There is also a 1946 photo of the quay, when it featured the small warehouses known as godowns where rice, cloves, and rubber were unloaded from the "bum boats" that jammed the river. Bum boats still pass by periodically but these days they carry tourists straining over the edge with video cameras. The Boat Quay, where Harry's and 20 or so other bars and restaurants are located, sits on the edge of Singapore's financial district, lined by skyscrapers. It is one of a handful of restoration areas, of the local Peranakan shop-house architecture, that the government has championed to lure tourists. The great debate at Harry's, as it is everywhere in Singapore where "expats" gather, is whether Singapore's strict government can back off enough to allow an organic growth of culture. The search for genuine nightlife in Singapore leads through the second and third stories of deserted shopping centers on Orchard Road - where discos are located - into the lounge bars and lounge music of the Hiltonesque haute couture of the city's hotels. Bugis Street, for instance, where American GIs on R&R from Vietnam played, was moved and reinvented, but it is empty many nights despite a cabaret-comedy show featuring a female impersonator. In another area, Tanjong Pagar, filled with karaoke clubs and pubs like Duxton's Chicago Bar & Grill, the Peranakan architecture is alluring but the beat is half-note slow. . The Boat Quay stands a much better chance of success. "It's open here," Gelpi says. A native of New Orleans who has lived in Singapore for 18 years, Gelpi is an ardent supporter of government policies. "Things always change," he says, not sharing the nostalgia for the days before Singapore began its transformation into a modern metropolis. The old Singapore, with legends of vice and seamy adventures, is mostly gone. At dusk lovers stroll by the banks of the Boat Quay, and the ethnic cafés roll out the tables. From the jam session at Harry's, the spontaneous chords of anarchic jazz waft over the water. A party from the opera arrives in dinner jackets. This could be the genesis of bourgeois café society. Continental and Cajun fare, about 30 Singapore dollars for dinner without wine, upstairs at Harry's, 28 Boat Quay. Tel.: (65) 538-3029; fax: 538-0365. .
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